The invention relates to a meat mincing machine comprising a mincing disc as well as to a mincing disc for producing continuous coils of minced meat substantially having a rectangular cross-section.
What is known is a meat mincing machine comprising a mincing disc with a field of perforations disposed in an annulus about a central through opening for a shaft. The continuous coil of minced meat discharged from the meat mincing machine when such a mincing disc is employed has a substantially annular cross-section. For packaging the minced meat in portion trays it is, however, advantageous if a continuous coil of minced meat has a substantially rectangular or trapezoidal cross-section. For this purpose the meat mincing machine is in general subsequently equipped with a filling mincer which serves to fill in the minced meat so as to form a continuous coil of minced meat with, for instance, a rectangular shape. In this case the filling mincer comprises a mincing disc with a field of perforations having a rectangular shape.
Typically the filling mincer has to be charged with minced meat which has already been subjected to final granulation. The fact that the field of perforations is rectangular on one hand whereas only limited space is available on the disc surface of the mincing disc on the other hand, provides only for a limited surface area for the discharge of the minced meat, which results in that a major part of the minced meat is only pushed against the mincing disc of the filling mincer and is pressed, as it cannot exit through the mincing disc due to a lack of discharge holes provided on the relatively small rectangular field of perforations. In the portions of the mincing disc with no opening the minced meat therefore undergoes a reduction of quality, especially if it was not finally granulated in advance to a large extent.
Furthermore, the efficiency of such a filling mincer is relatively small as merely a small surface of the mincing disc is used for producing a continuous coil of minced meat. Also the width of a continuous coil of minced meat to be produced is limited as only a rectangle can be fitted in between the outer periphery of the mincing disc and the central through opening for a shaft, which does not have the full Width of the mincing disc.
It is, therefore, the object of the present invention to provide a meat mincing machine comprising a mincing disc as well as a mincing disc, which permits the production of a continuous coil of minced meat with a substantially rectangular cross-section by using a possibly large portion of the mincing disc and which, moreover, produces a continuous coil of minced meat whereof the width may even be larger than the width of the mincing disc.
The above-described object is provided by a mincing disc according to the features of claim 1.
The mincing disc according to the invention is accordingly provided with a field of perforations having partial areas arranged in an imagined corridor provided at both sides of the central through opening which extends over the surface of the mincing disc, encloses the central through opening and touches the central through opening with both linear boundary lines.
Starting out from a rectangle, which, according to FIG. 2 (FIG. 2 shows a mincing disc according to the invention), is, for instance, fitted in underneath line 13a between the central through opening 8 and the periphery of the disc, the field of perforations in a mincing disc according to the invention is, for example, extended upwardly at both sides of the central through opening. This results in a portion of the field of perforations at opposite sides of the central through opening, whereby the used surface of the mincing disc becomes larger. In other words, the field of perforations is, for instance, enclosed by a boundary line having a curved portion.
Such a field of perforations permits the use of a larger portion of the mincing disc and, thus, the production of a continuous coil of minced meat with a substantially rectangular cross-section compared to a mincing disc where a rectangle is fitted in between the periphery and the central through opening.
If the continuous coil of minced meat, upon its discharge from the mincing disc, drops onto a deposit place, the continuous coil of minced meat may undergo deformation such that a continuous coil of minced meat with a substantially rectangular cross-section is produced, namely due to the folding of the continuous coil of minced meat or, respectively, due to the adjustment thereof to the plane deposit.
This entails the advantage that a larger portion of the mincing disc can be used. Moreover, pre-chopping by means of a preceding meat mincing machine is not necessary, as relatively large portions of the mincing disc are provided with a field of perforations, so that also the ejection pressure becomes lower altogether, which, again, results in a smoother treatment of the minced meat. Furthermore, it becomes possible to have the minced meat finally granulated in the filling mincer itself without requiring a preceding final mincer.
The lateral arrangement of the portions of the field of perforations at both sides of the central opening results altogether also in widening the continuous coil to be produced. If, for instance, the portions of the field of perforations with a bent lower boundary line are arranged horizontally and laterally at both sides of the central opening, the continuous coil of minced meat discharged from the mincing disc, when placed on the following deposit, can laterally fold down from its discharge shape with pulled up sides, in other words, the sides, too, are wound off on the deposit and result in a larger width of the continuous coil of minced meat compared to the width of the mincing disc.
The field of perforations is favorably U-shaped. The term U-shaped hereby also includes an approximately half-circle annular shape which does not exactly show two straight legs extending in parallel. Such a shape especially serves to produce a continuous coil of minced meat which is as wide as possible, as upon the folding of the continuous coil of minced meat on the deposit after its discharge from the mincingly disc a continuous coil of minced meat having a width and a substantially rectangular cross-section is provided, whereby the width of the continuous coil exceeds the diameter of the mincing disc. This is especially favorable as continuous coils of minced meat having a large width can likewise be produced with small meat mincing machines.
Moreover advantageous is an embodiment according to the invention where the field of perforations completely encloses the central through opening thereby permitting an additional enlargement of the surface of the mincing disc which is required for producing the continuous coil of minced meat with a substantially rectangular cross-section.
The field of perforations preferably comprises at least one linear boundary line. By one or more of such linear boundary lines a most favorable adjustment of the cross-section of the continuous coil of minced meat to a rectangular shape can be achieved.
Another advantageous embodiment of the invention resides in that a part of the field of perforations is arranged above and another part of the field of perforations underneath the central through opening. It is, moreover, an advantage if a part of the field of perforations is arranged at the right-hand side of the central through opening and another part at the left-hand side thereof. By means of said two steps the usable portion of the mincing disc for producing a continuous coil of minced meat having a substantially rectangular cross-section can be increased.
An advantageous embodiment of the invention furthermore resides in that the field of perforations is arranged mirror-symmetrically to at least one mirror axis extending through the center of the disc periphery. The symmetrical arrangement of the field of perforations to at least one mirror axis also results in a symmetrically formed continuous coil of minced meat, which is an advantage for the filling and portioning of the minced meat.
Another advantageous embodiment of the invention resides in that the field of perforations includes at least one portion of more than 30% of the entire surface of the discharge opening of the mincer. The fact that a surface of more than 30% of the entire surface of the discharge opening of the mincer is used for producing the continuous coil of minced meat with a substantially rectangular cross-section renders the mincer highly efficient, and only a small amount of meat or minced meat, respectively, is exposed to a quality reducing pressure. Mincing discs for producing rectangular continuous coils of minced meat according to the prior art merely exploit a surface of approximately 20% of the entire surface of the discharge opening of the mincer.